Originally posted by NightWeaverwe found suse recognized hardware the best, but preferred debian and slackware.
For a while now i have been intersted in Linux and learning all there is to know about it. i have recently installed it and enjoy using it. i use redhat but i have been told that SuSe is the best
we now mostly use freebsd (unix) which is supposedly even better than linux for many things - check out http://people.freebsd.org/~murray/bsd_flier.html
(still have a couple of machines with win98 for certain tasks and it runs pretty well though there are crashes now and then)
Originally posted by NightWeaverI've used SuSE, Red Hat, Mandrake etc.
For a while now i have been intersted in Linux and learning all there is to know about it. i have recently installed it and enjoy using it. i use redhat but i have been told that SuSe is the best
anyone have any opinions, and does anyone think windows is better and if so why
I think linux is great as it provides exposure to *nix that many people wouldn't have the chance to access otherwise. I've solved several problems at work using Linux (and easily) that have saved us alot of money!
The SuSE installer, called Yast is pretty good now (R 8.2) and certainly detects all my hardware easily (including dual head setup).
The thing about SuSE is it contains so much software - roughly about 6/7 CDs worth. On the downside, if your new to setting up the system I think the sheer selection can be a bit daunting. However on the upside you can probably find a program to do just about anything you want!
In summary, SuSE isn't a bad place to begin.
Mandrake has nice installer too, but I haven't used this or RedHat for a while now - I'll leave the review to someone who has.
Like previous post I too would suggest you start off by dual boot setup (but backup your data before trying to install). Again some distributions can be downloaded for free, if you have bandwidth and patience - but why not support them by buying a copy? SuSE 8.2 comes on DVD and CD along with a couple of thick manuals (for ~ £50).
Also don't forget there are other type *nix OS's like FreeBSD and OpenBSD - you could experiment with these too.
Finally, suggested reading: "Unix Power Tools" by Peek, O'Reilly and Loukides is an excellent book and will definitely show you some of the possibilities open to you with these OS's.
Well its nice to know people think the same things as me and all of you have been hepful and i thank you for that. The copy of redhat that i bought came one DVD with a book for about £35.
the reasons why i was interested into getting into linux is that im doing cisco(large networking company do most of the swithces and routers for the net incase you dont know) course atm and i hope to get a job with them in the networking side of computer. hopefully this will include setting servers up and other jobs like that that i find interesting. as many servers now run linux i thought id give myself a head start by learning it.
i have a machine that dual boots linux and windows but thatnks for the tip anyway.
i hope to see linux become the new home operating system in the near futre as i feel that it is by far better than microsoft when it comes to the serious side of computing. Some companies such as Evsham are already distibuting new pc's with linux as the OS.
im not saying windows is crap, and i find XP to be relativly competent at its job but many microsoft products are stupidly over priced and eat up your system resources. i mean iexplorer takes 14k ok memory. Since linux and many applications that come with it take up such little resources many computer that can no longer be used are starting to see life again.
i have a pentium 166 that runs linux a dream.
what do people think about linux becoming the new main OS of the market. i know i hope it happens 😉
well, if you're up for trying out linux and dont want to give up your win-box. Check out www.demolinux.org There are a couple of flavors that run from CD, that's just one. Boot up with that burned CD in and see what it's like. No stress, if you like it, you know and you can explore it more, if not you haven't spent a day partitioning, installing, re-installing, etc...